Review – Provoke My by Cari Quinn

Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
Publish Date: Out Now!
How I got this book: eARC from author

Sometimes extreme provocation can lead to exactly what you need…

Attracted.
Kelly’s focus is the bookstore she manages. Sex is relegated to a list of candidates on her PDA. Only one man pushes all her buttons―her boss.

Fascinated.
Spencer is determined to fight his desire for Kelly. For years they’ve bumped heads over the store they both love. But there’s more than one reason their getting together is complicated.

Provoked.
When Kelly and Spencer unexpectedly meet up at a sex club, all the rules go out the window. Suddenly there’s only way this match of wills can end―naked, preferably all night long. In this battle for sexual supremacy, there are two winners—and two losers when their stubbornness leads to the very thing each dreads most.

Readers’ Advisory: In a couple of scenes, Kelly and Spencer test “the more the merrier” theory.
*Blurb from Goodreads*

I’ve always heard such great things about Quinn, but had only read her short story in the Undercover Lovers Anthology. Let me tell ya, when Quinn has more pages to work with, she really steams them up!!

Kelly has lived and breathed the bookstore, and loves everything about her job, especially her sexy as sin boss. But Spencer doesn’t seem to notice or even really like her most days. That doesn’t stop her from having him star in all her fantasies, or topping her list of men she dreams of having.

Spencer can’t get involved in another scandal with an employee, so no matter how attracted he is to Kelly, she is off limits. But when he finds her PDA and his name on her list, he finds it harder and harder to get her off his mind. Once they run into each other at an underground sex club, Spencer finds that his possessiveness is stronger than he ever thought. But when someone from Spencer’s past shows up, he will have to decide what he wants more: a life with Kelly, or to follow what he thought was his dream.

Let me just start by saying that Quinn writes some really, really sexy stuff. I’m not new to books that involve most of the plot being done at a sex club, and this one didn’t feel seedy or gross or anything. For those of you who know me, I’m not keen on menage books, and although Kelly and Spencer do have a few times when they invite others to join them, it never really felt like a menage to me. For that I really enjoyed those moments, they were sexy and hot, but not crossing into anything uncomfortable.

I enjoyed Kelly’s character a lot. She was vulnerable and honest and a little uncertain in her own skin. She was a nerd and had some serious self-esteem issues. I found a lot of myself in her (minus the kinky tendencies *grin*), and for that I really took a lot of Spencer’s BS personal. There were times I didn’t really like him much, and couldn’t see what exactly Kelly saw in him. At times I even thought that she put up with a lot more than she probably should have.

While I didn’t want to like Spencer, and through most of the time I didn’t, I did understand many of his hang-ups. I got why he didn’t want to have a relationship with another co-worker, didn’t want another scandal at work. But at the same time I thought that he went a little too far withholding himself from her, and many of his actions were pure a-hole things to do. But, in the end, he did do a good job of redeeming himself in both my eyes and Kelly’s.

All in all, I enjoyed this Quinn read. While the hero grated on my nerves, he did find a way to atone for his foolish ways, and win over the heroine in a way that was believable to me. The sexy times were super duper smokin’ hot and fun to read.

I give Provoke Me a B-

 

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2 thoughts on “Review – Provoke My by Cari Quinn”

  1. Skipping review because this one is coming up soon for me..but I’ll be back after I read it! I really enjoyed Quinn’s last book and looking forward to this one!

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